New research from the British Psychological Society suggests turning off your smartphone and ignoring social networks could be a simple way to quickly reduce stress.

The study found that stress was most commonly associated with personal use of smartphones and not as often when used for work. The theory is that the stress comes from constantly checking the phone for social networking updates. As the stress level increases so does the compulsion to check social networks. The psychologist in charge of the study suggests simple tips to curbing this behavior in the workplace:

Organisations will not flourish if their employees are stressed, irrespective of the source of stress, so it is in their interest to encourage their employees to switch their phones off; cut the number of work emails sent out of hours, reduce people's temptation to check their devices.

In might be a good idea to take the same advice even if you don't use your smartphone for work. Turn off the phone when you're not expecting important calls and remove notifications from social apps. Photo by Phil Campbell.